05 Aug Arrested Development: Filling A Void In The Industry

Since the group’s founding in 1988, Arrested Development has been blessing the world with their infectious melodies and grooves. Their first album, 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days...in the Life was released in 1992. The album’s title was a reflection on how long it took them to establish a record deal.  During the same year, they became one of the major success stories in the music industry. Founded in Atlanta by rapper Speech and DJ Headliner, the group were described by Rolling Stone as a “progressive rap collective fusing soul, blues, Hip Hop, and Sly & the Family Stone-influenced funk with political, socially conscious lyrics.” At that time, they mutually agreed to make the transition to a more positive, Afrocentric theme after hearing the legendary Public Enemy. This album went onto spawn the hit single "Tennessee," a strongly spiritual track that hit #7 on the US pop charts and #3 on the R&B charts and sparked the album to sell over four million copies. The two follow-up singles, "People Everyday" (a rewrite of Sly and the Family Stone’s "Everyday People") and "Mr. Wendal" performed extraordinarily well. With accolades pouring in from all sides, Arrested Development ended up winning Grammys for Best Rap Album and Best New Artist, going on to be named Rolling Stone's Band of the Year. After breaking up in 1996, the group reunited in 2000 and since then they’ve been releasing music internationally. Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of speaking to Speech, co-founding member of Arrested Development about what the group has been up to recently and to speak on their brand new album, Strong.